23 May, 2011, johndahlstrom wrote in the 1st comment:
Votes: 0
Brief Introduction Frostheim is a new MUD set in a cold and harsh high fantasy world with influences from norse mythology. Development has been going on since October 2010, all done from scratch and with the engine written in Node.JS. Frostheim's goal is to create a game that is made for the players by the players and aimed to be very user friendly, easy to get into and free to play.
History In the beginning of time, man lived in peace and harmony. Even though they had different lifestyles and beliefs, they worked together as a group. Hundreds of years passed by like this, until the day a stranger came and told them about what was to come.
Man was told that disaster was heading their way, a cataclysm that would change their lives forever. Worried by this dire portent, they asked their Gods for guidance. After hearing the words of the divine, the people were split in twain, one half went to the far north to seek shelter in the mountains, while the other half stayed put, despite what the man had warned them of.
Time went by as usual for many years. But the cataclysm came. A horde of creatures swooped through the lands, killing and destroying everything in its path and as it went by, the earth started to freeze over. Those in the south had to flee to the shelter of nearby caves and fight for their survival while the people in the north already had the safety of their mountains, protected from the creatures by barriers of stone.
With the creatures lurking around every corner, food and resources became scare as time went by. The few that survived the chaos this caused were forced to eat or be eaten. The Gods, split between the two factions, declared this chaos to be an act of their counterparts, decreeing that their followers must seek vengeance against them. The time of war had come.
The Gods watched man as they fought each other for their survival, but a growing fear of the extermination of mankind grew. If mankind was not alive to worship them then their powers would fade. They made a temporary truce between their factions in an effort to avoid this.
But mankind did not stop the war. They needed all the food and resources they could get their hands on, and anyone who was not with them was a hurdle to be cleared. In this war-torn world man came to worship only the Gods which had helped them out the most throughout time.
The once peaceful villages, spread throughout the lands, had suddenly became the key to survival. They all had something others needed to survive, and conquest became the desired method of acquiring the resources guarded by others.
Since the Gods needed mankind in order to thrive, they granted their followers powers to assist them in their wars. Whenever one people would win over another, their strength would grow, so the war for total dominance raged, a portrayal of survival, power and vengeance in motion. Only the strongest will survive the harsh lands of Frostheim.
Circles Circle is the definition of Frostheims skill tree. They are categorized into Common and Combat. Common Circles are those that everyone can learn while Combat Circles are divided into either Magic or Physical. So when you first start your character you will choose if youre a user of Magic or someone who prefer Physical based attacks.
Common Circles are pretty straight forward to learn - you choose one and learn whats in it. A couple of examples of Common Circles are Hunting, Herbalism and Brawling.
Combat Circles on the other hand are a bit different. There are five different tiers that you go through when you choose which Combat Circles you wish to have. You may move to the next tier after youve mastered the one youre currently at. At each tier there are a total of three different Circles you can choose from (except the first tier). These three choices are categorized into Offensive, Utility and Defensive.
So lets say that youve mastered Tier 1 in the Physical Circles. Youre now free to choose what Circle you want to continue your learning in. Maybe you want the offensive abilities from Tier 2? Then you take that Circle and learn all the fun offensive abilities it has to offer. Once youve mastered that offensive circle at Tier 2 youre going to continue to Tier 3 that with the same kind of choice. How about mixing it up and take the Utility abilities from this Tier? And so it continues down to Tier 4.
And finally as you master the forth Circle, a fifth tier will be available to you. This one will contain so called Ultimates. These are very powerful abilities that reflect the path you took with your abilities. If you for example chose mainly offensive Circles, then that is what youll have as your Tier 5.
Hopefully this simple illustration of how the tiers and Circles are built up will help you get the picture that I try to explain:
Conflict To achieve a dynamic world you need conflict. However, in Frostheim its not just between player run factions, no you want something else mixed with that. To make the world get more life, weve added a neutral faction. This faction is ran by NPCs and they will either help you out or try killing you if you dont behave.
Villages These will be spread out among the lands of Frostheim. They are neutral to begin with, but you can sway them over by helping them out. This is done by doing quests given by their population. There are four different types of quests - hunting, collecting, persuade and assassination. Completing one will gain you reputation in the village. If you and your faction gain enough reputation in the village, the population there will start helping you out.
The reputation is not static though and youll have to keep questing in order to maintain it. If you leave the village on its own for a period of time, it will go back to neutral status and not aiding you anymore. The other thing that will make the reputation worse for you is if your enemies start doing quests for them as well. So you can think of the reputation with a village as a progress bar - which is shared with your enemies - that decrease if you dont help them out and increase if you do. A tug-of-war if you will.
Rewards Nothing is fun to do without getting something for the hard work. Thats why weve made it rewarding to sway over a village to your side. Among the things that a village can offer you is special goods nowhere else to be found such as weapons, clothing, food and pets. Some villages will even increase your factions strength, giving you a bonus on the battlefield. The rewards will be plenty and all being useful.
PvP & PvE Since we like to keep things simple and straight to the point in Frostheim, so is also the combat system. To do a brief explanation on it, just think of the standard "balance" MUD. However, we use only one balance - for everything. So in reality it is more as a real-time turn based combat system, though you don't wait on your opponent and he/she won't wait on you, since it's real-time action.
The various things you may do when you're "on balance" is to either buff yourself or someone else, debuff someone, cure yourself from an debuff, heal your health, do straight damage attacks or maybe just unleash one of your Ultimates. Debuffs and buffs last for a set number of balances, just as you can see in turn based games.
One unique thing is that every ability you learn and know can be used on NPC's. As the NPC's will have advanced AI's, a battle with an NPC will be a lot more dynamic and thrilling. No more mindless hack n slash! We're going into more dangerous and interesting territories than that.
And much more There're of course plenty of other features on their way in addition to the ones which have already been implemented (such as building), but I hope this introduction has given you a good base knowledge of what Frostheim is and will become, and enough information to get you excited!
So what are we looking for? Currently we're looking for people who can help us write lore and build areas. We're always open to suggestions, and look forward to hearing from you.
Contact If you're interested in assisting us, please contact me at john@frostheim.com or send me a PM here on the forum. You may also visit our Facebook page for updates and information: http://facebook.com/Frostheim
Frostheim is a new MUD set in a cold and harsh high fantasy world with influences from norse mythology. Development has been going on since October 2010, all done from scratch and with the engine written in Node.JS. Frostheim's goal is to create a game that is made for the players by the players and aimed to be very user friendly, easy to get into and free to play.
History
In the beginning of time, man lived in peace and harmony. Even though they had different lifestyles and beliefs, they worked together as a group. Hundreds of years passed by like this, until the day a stranger came and told them about what was to come.
Man was told that disaster was heading their way, a cataclysm that would change their lives forever. Worried by this dire portent, they asked their Gods for guidance. After hearing the words of the divine, the people were split in twain, one half went to the far north to seek shelter in the mountains, while the other half stayed put, despite what the man had warned them of.
Time went by as usual for many years. But the cataclysm came. A horde of creatures swooped through the lands, killing and destroying everything in its path and as it went by, the earth started to freeze over. Those in the south had to flee to the shelter of nearby caves and fight for their survival while the people in the north already had the safety of their mountains, protected from the creatures by barriers of stone.
With the creatures lurking around every corner, food and resources became scare as time went by. The few that survived the chaos this caused were forced to eat or be eaten. The Gods, split between the two factions, declared this chaos to be an act of their counterparts, decreeing that their followers must seek vengeance against them. The time of war had come.
The Gods watched man as they fought each other for their survival, but a growing fear of the extermination of mankind grew. If mankind was not alive to worship them then their powers would fade. They made a temporary truce between their factions in an effort to avoid this.
But mankind did not stop the war. They needed all the food and resources they could get their hands on, and anyone who was not with them was a hurdle to be cleared. In this war-torn world man came to worship only the Gods which had helped them out the most throughout time.
The once peaceful villages, spread throughout the lands, had suddenly became the key to survival. They all had something others needed to survive, and conquest became the desired method of acquiring the resources guarded by others.
Since the Gods needed mankind in order to thrive, they granted their followers powers to assist them in their wars. Whenever one people would win over another, their strength would grow, so the war for total dominance raged, a portrayal of survival, power and vengeance in motion. Only the strongest will survive the harsh lands of Frostheim.
Circles
Circle is the definition of Frostheims skill tree. They are categorized into Common and Combat. Common Circles are those that everyone can learn while Combat Circles are divided into either Magic or Physical. So when you first start your character you will choose if youre a user of Magic or someone who prefer Physical based attacks.
Common Circles are pretty straight forward to learn - you choose one and learn whats in it. A couple of examples of Common Circles are Hunting, Herbalism and Brawling.
Combat Circles on the other hand are a bit different. There are five different tiers that you go through when you choose which Combat Circles you wish to have. You may move to the next tier after youve mastered the one youre currently at. At each tier there are a total of three different Circles you can choose from (except the first tier). These three choices are categorized into Offensive, Utility and Defensive.
So lets say that youve mastered Tier 1 in the Physical Circles. Youre now free to choose what Circle you want to continue your learning in. Maybe you want the offensive abilities from Tier 2? Then you take that Circle and learn all the fun offensive abilities it has to offer. Once youve mastered that offensive circle at Tier 2 youre going to continue to Tier 3 that with the same kind of choice. How about mixing it up and take the Utility abilities from this Tier? And so it continues down to Tier 4.
And finally as you master the forth Circle, a fifth tier will be available to you. This one will contain so called Ultimates. These are very powerful abilities that reflect the path you took with your abilities. If you for example chose mainly offensive Circles, then that is what youll have as your Tier 5.
Hopefully this simple illustration of how the tiers and Circles are built up will help you get the picture that I try to explain:
Key Legend:
Green: Basic abilities (Tier 1)
Red: Offensive abilities
Gray: Utility abilities
Blue: Defensive abilities
Orange: Mixed abilities (available if you chose 1 offensive, 1 defensive and 1 utility Circle)
Conflict
To achieve a dynamic world you need conflict. However, in Frostheim its not just between player run factions, no you want something else mixed with that. To make the world get more life, weve added a neutral faction. This faction is ran by NPCs and they will either help you out or try killing you if you dont behave.
Villages
These will be spread out among the lands of Frostheim. They are neutral to begin with, but you can sway them over by helping them out. This is done by doing quests given by their population. There are four different types of quests - hunting, collecting, persuade and assassination. Completing one will gain you reputation in the village. If you and your faction gain enough reputation in the village, the population there will start helping you out.
The reputation is not static though and youll have to keep questing in order to maintain it. If you leave the village on its own for a period of time, it will go back to neutral status and not aiding you anymore. The other thing that will make the reputation worse for you is if your enemies start doing quests for them as well. So you can think of the reputation with a village as a progress bar - which is shared with your enemies - that decrease if you dont help them out and increase if you do. A tug-of-war if you will.
Rewards
Nothing is fun to do without getting something for the hard work. Thats why weve made it rewarding to sway over a village to your side. Among the things that a village can offer you is special goods nowhere else to be found such as weapons, clothing, food and pets. Some villages will even increase your factions strength, giving you a bonus on the battlefield. The rewards will be plenty and all being useful.
PvP & PvE
Since we like to keep things simple and straight to the point in Frostheim, so is also the combat system. To do a brief explanation on it, just think of the standard "balance" MUD. However, we use only one balance - for everything. So in reality it is more as a real-time turn based combat system, though you don't wait on your opponent and he/she won't wait on you, since it's real-time action.
The various things you may do when you're "on balance" is to either buff yourself or someone else, debuff someone, cure yourself from an debuff, heal your health, do straight damage attacks or maybe just unleash one of your Ultimates. Debuffs and buffs last for a set number of balances, just as you can see in turn based games.
One unique thing is that every ability you learn and know can be used on NPC's. As the NPC's will have advanced AI's, a battle with an NPC will be a lot more dynamic and thrilling. No more mindless hack n slash! We're going into more dangerous and interesting territories than that.
And much more
There're of course plenty of other features on their way in addition to the ones which have already been implemented (such as building), but I hope this introduction has given you a good base knowledge of what Frostheim is and will become, and enough information to get you excited!
So what are we looking for?
Currently we're looking for people who can help us write lore and build areas. We're always open to suggestions, and look forward to hearing from you.
Contact
If you're interested in assisting us, please contact me at john@frostheim.com or send me a PM here on the forum.
You may also visit our Facebook page for updates and information: http://facebook.com/Frostheim